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Malaga crush Adelaide in soccer friendly

Steve Larkin

Some sweet strikes and a dose of luck helped Spanish club Malaga CF trounce Adelaide United 5-1 in an international soccer friendly on Friday night.

The La Liga outfit outclassed their A-League opponents in the pre-season fixture before a 23,254-strong crowd at Adelaide Oval.

Adelaide's Osama Malik gifted the visitors the opener with an own-goal before the Reds conceded three goals in 14 minutes in the second half - a scoring spree punctuated by a reply from Reds striker Bruce Djite.

Malaga, tuning up for their La Liga opener on August 24, set an early tone of dominance with three gilt-edged scoring chances before Malik's brain-fade gave them a goal in the 18th minute.

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After a corner, Malaga's Samu Castillejo's first-time volley bounced to Malik, who inexplicably turned a header into his net - the Adelaide defender furiously slapped his head at his error while his teammates shook theirs.

Adelaide managed to find the Malaga net in the 24th minute when Isaias drove goalward only for his teammate Nigel Boogard to get a touch on the shot from an offside position to have the goal disallowed.

After trailing 1-0 at halftime, the Reds rapidly slipped further behind.

In the 49th minute, Pablo Perez crunched a powerful right-footer into the net from 20 metres out.

Four minutes later, teammate Luis Alberto neatly curled a free-kick into the top corner of the net from the same distance.

Adelaide's Djite responded in the 59th minute, beating the keeper with a superb long-range left-footer.

But the Spaniards replied just four minutes later when Perez cut through the Adelaide defence and laid a perfect pass into the path of Juanmi at the far post and he duly tapped in.

Juanmi added another in the 86th minute with a sliding tap-in from a metre out to cap a resounding triumph.

Adelaide United coach Josep Gombau said despite the lopsided result, the international friendly was worthwhile.

"It's a good game for them to learn ... the result is honest, it reflects what happened," Gombau said.

Malaga CF coach Javi Garcia said although his side won easily, he was impressed by the Reds,

"They're a good team, they work hard. It might not have been their best day but it was a relatively good game from both teams given it's preseason," he said.